Brewing Up Tea & Herbal Tisane Cheeses

Herbs, smoked, strawberry, garlic, and chili might not be the first flavors that come to mind when you think about cheese, but according to Innova Market Insights, they are 5 of the most common cheese flavors across all major regions (in the 5 years ending Q3, 2022). As cheesemakers push the boundaries of flavored cheese, teas, including herbal tisanes, are finding their way into cheeses as well.

Beehive Cheese's Teahive

Uintah, UT-based B-certified creamery Beehive Cheese followed up a popular coffee-flavored cheese with a tea-flavored one. The creamery, co-founded by Pat Ford and brother-in-law Tim Welsh, made its mark in the cheese world in 2010 with Barely Buzzed, a Cheddar rubbed with espresso and lavender. But it would take a trip to Portugal for the idea for Teahive, its Cheddar rubbed with Earl Grey, to come to fruition.

Katie Schall, director of marketing at Beehive Cheese explains that Pat and his wife Jeanette were driving around Portugal in an open convertible and smelled the citrus bloom. They thought that Beehive should try to make a cheese that was floral and fragrant. They discussed the idea with Tim Welsh who was a big coffee and tea drinker. He came up with the idea of using Earl Grey since it contains bergamot, which could provide a floral citrus flavor to the cheese.

A Tea Rub

For Teehive, as with all their cheese, they use Cheddar as a base and rub Davidson’s Organics’ Earl Grey on the rind right after the cheese is made. It’s quite crazy how the rub on the rind really imparts the flavor to the cheese and changes the cheese as it ages, Schall shares. Unlike Barely Buzzed, Teahive is less savory and more floral. “That Cheddar doesn't have a ton of sharpness to it. It’s not very acidic, but it’s very creamy and buttery,” Schall notes. Plus it’s a cheese that has its own cult following. “People who love it, love it," she says.

Schall would not recommend pairing a cup of Earl Grey with the cheese since the tea can be overwhelming. Instead, she recommends pairing it with a white tea, which is more mellow, or even an herbal infusion like a berry tea. Other pairing suggestions include using it with scones and shortbread biscuits. Schall personally recommends using it on a wood-fired pizza with caramelized fennel, fig, and a little balsamic vinegar. Read more about Beehive Cheese.

Nettle Meadow Farm's Herbal Tisane Cheeses

Nettle Peaks, photo credit Nettle Meadow

Lake Luzerne, NY-based Nettle Meadow, owned by Sheila Flanagan and Lorraine Lambiase has been making cheeses infused with herbal teas since 2008 including Briar Summit, a bloomy rind double cream from sheep’s, cow’s and goat’s milk, infused with raspberry tea, and Nettle Peaks, a goat’s milk cheese with nettle tea and vegetable ash dust.

Flannigan shares that it all started with their honey lavender fromage blanc. They took dried lavender flowers made an herbal tisane with it and added the infusion to the fromage blanc. It was so successful that Nettle Meadow kept branching out and trying other kinds of mixed herbs like chives and thyme. But when it came to rosemary, they knew that grinding up rosemary leaves would not work well since they become chewy and unappetizing. Instead, they decided to make an herbal rosemary infusion, which formed the basis of their mixed herb cheese.

The Unexpected Benefits of Using Herbal Infusions

Since the farm got its name from the ubiquitous nettles on the property, Flannigan said they decided they had to make something with nettle. They decided to use nettle tea with the cheese. They found that the thistle in the tea acted as a second coagulant, which they had not expected. Flannigan said, “it made the cheese look a little glassy looking and really renovated [the cheese] but in a totally different way. So it made it more complex and unusual to use.”

Finally, they decided to do something with raspberry leaf since they wanted to give cheese customers a sense of the terroir of the farm. They made a tea infusion with the organic raspberry leaves and infused it into the Briar Summit. Flannigan noted another surprise: not only did the raspberry tea give the cheese a more herbal flavor, the tannins in the raspberry leaf broke down the butterfat in the curd and made it taste like it had more cream in it than it did. It was almost like a triple cream, Flannigan said.

Overall, Flannigan notes that these experiments with tea “actually changed the character of the cheese in terms of its structure or its architecture as much as it changed the flavor. I think that’s super cool and a little bit witchy because the [tea infusions] do things that we don’t really expect.”

Of course, it took a few tries to get the amount of tea flavoring right, Flannigan notes. It took five passes to get the Nettle Peaks down. Since 2008, they’ve been using the same recipe for Nettle Peaks and the same recipe for Briar Summit since 2009-2010.

Flannigan recommends several tea pairings such as a citrus tea with the Briar Summit. People have gotten creative with the cheeses, such as using the lavender honey fromage blanc in cannoli, cheesecakes, icing for wedding cakes, and even in crepes. Read more about Nettle M eadow.

Chai Cheddar from Gold Creek Farms

Gold Creek Farm Chai Cheddar photo credit Gold Creek Farm

Kamas, UT-based Alan and Debbie Gold established Gold Creek Farms in 2007, and began raising Brown Swiss cows for their high butterfat milk. They began working with chef and now cheesemaker Fernando Chavez-Sandoval in 2009 to make artisan cheese including Gold Creek Cheddar Chai.

Chavez-Sandoval uses his background in fine dining to think about each cheese holistically: from the taste and look of the cheese to how customers, both individuals and chefs, would use the cheese. Chai Cheddar arose during lockdown in 2021 because he thought the Chai would impart a good flavor to the cheese.

Finding the Right Tea

Inspired by wanting to make something that inspires chefs and other people in the food industry to think outside the box, he conceptualized a chai-flavored cheese. However figuring out how to make it took some time. First, he had to find the right chai mix. Chavez-Sandoval initially bought 5 lbs of chai spice online without realizing that the mixture contained sugar. He didn’t want the additional sugar in the cheese since the Brown Swiss cows made a sweeter cheese to begin with. So, he decided to make a custom spice mix, buying the spices individually, and combining them.

Chavez-Sandoval also had to decide which cheese to use for the chai mixture. He first looked at the other cheeses in the Gold Greek Farm’s portfolio. He ruled out the asiago because it has a strong umami taste and bite that would overpower the chai flavor. Parmesan would be too dry so the chai would not penetrate well. He settled on Cheddar because it had a nutty flavor and tyrosine crystals from aging that he thought would complement the flavoring.

Chavez-Sandoval decided to infuse the chai into the cheese as it's being made so that “in every bite you have, you have the same flavor,” Chavez-Sandoval explains. The rind of the cheese is also rubbed with the chai mixture. The result is a beautiful, marbled cheese that has both nuttiness and sweetness.

There are many different ways to use the Gold Creek Farms Chai Cheddar. Chavez-Sandoval recalls pairing it with duck prepared two ways, leg confit and seared breast, as well as a pork tenderloin, brined with apple and brandy chutney and the cheese shredded on top. A fan of Cheddar and apples, he also recommends using it on a cheeseboard with caramelized pears and apples, chutney, wine, and bread.